Storage Medium Storing Control Program for Information Processing Apparatus, Control Method for Information Processing Apparatus, and Information Processing Apparatus

The present invention relates to a storage medium storing a control program for an information processing apparatus, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus.

There is a known configuration in which an instruction to read a document is issued to an image processing apparatus (including a scanning apparatus) connected to an information processing apparatus while using a scan driver installed in the information processing apparatus as control software for the image processing apparatus. An OS (Operating System), which is basic software, is installed in the information processing apparatus, and the scan driver is configured in accordance with specifications defined by the OS and is called from the OS to operate. On the other hand, a manufacturer of an image processing apparatus can provide a means for instructing an image processing apparatus to read a document by using the OS by providing a scan driver conforming to the specification of the OS. In this specification, a manufacturer includes a vendor of an image processing apparatus.

In recent years, a standard class driver (hereinafter, also referred to as a “standard driver”) that can be used in common among image processing apparatuses manufactured by a plurality of manufacturers is provided in Windows (registered trademark). The standard driver is included in an OS package and can be used easily by connecting an arbitrary image processing apparatus to an information processing apparatus. Therefore, the standard driver is highly convenient because it is not necessary to separately install a model-specific scan driver suitable for an image processing apparatus. The standard driver is assumed to enable a scan function in accordance with scan function information generated based on information obtained from the connected image processing apparatus. Thus, a user using the standard driver can set a scan function corresponding to capability of a connected image processing apparatus even though the user uses one standard driver.

However, a scan function that can be set by the user is limited to a function that can be achieved only by the standard driver, and thus a function unique to a manufacturer cannot be set. As a technique related to this point, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2021-033526 discloses a program to support a printing function of general-purpose software, although it is a technique for a printing function different from a scanning function.

One of functions of a scan driver unique to a manufacture is a file format setting function. The file format setting function is a function capable of setting a file format of image data obtained by the image processing apparatus reading a document. Therefore, when a scan driver unique to the manufacturer is used in the information processing apparatus, the user using the scan driver can set the file format of the image data obtained by the image processing apparatus reading the document by the file format setting function. Note that file formats that can be set by the file format setting function include, for example, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, XPS, and OOXML. However, when the standard driver is used in the information processing apparatus, the user using the standard driver cannot use the file format setting function, and thus cannot set the file format of the image data obtained by the image processing apparatus reading the document.

The present invention provides a mechanism that can set a file format of image data obtained by reading a document with an image processing apparatus when a user uses, with an information processing apparatus, software that can be used in common for image processing apparatuses of a plurality of manufacturers.

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention provides A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that supports software capable of commonly being used in image processing apparatuses of a plurality of manufactures and causes a computer of an information processing apparatus to execute a method including displaying a screen through which a user operation to set a file format of image data that is obtained by reading a document by an image processing apparatus is received, and setting the file format of the image data in accordance with the user operation accepted through the screen.

According to the present invention, when a user uses, with the information processing apparatus, the software that can be used in common for image processing apparatuses of a plurality of manufacturers, the user can set the file format of image data obtained by reading a document with the image processing apparatus.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

Hereafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail by referring to the drawings. However, configurations described in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the scope of the present invention is not limited by the configurations described in the embodiments. For example, not all combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solving means of the present invention. For example, each unit constituting the present invention can be replaced with any configuration capable of exhibiting the same function. In addition, an arbitrary constituent may be added. Any two or more configurations (features) of the embodiments can be combined.

The first embodiment will now be described with reference to.

is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a scanning system. As shown in, the scanning system includes a host computerand a scanning apparatus. The host computer(an information processing apparatus) may be a desktop personal computer, a smartphone, a notebook personal computer, or a tablet terminal. In, the host computerincludes an input interface, a CPU(computer), a ROM, a RAM, an external storage device, an output interface, an input/output interface, and a NETIF. Further, the input interfaceis connected to input devices, such as a keyboardand a pointing device, and the output interfaceis connected to a display device such as a display unit.

For example, a scan setting screen, an advanced setting screen, and the like, which will be described later, are displayed on the display unit. The NETIFis a network interface and controls data transfer with an external apparatus via a network. The ROMstores an initialization program. The external storage deviceis, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive). The external storage devicestores an application program group, an operating system (OS), and other various data. The RAMis used as a work memory when various programs stored in the external storage deviceare executed. This enables various programs to operate in the host computer. In the first embodiment, the CPUperforms a process in accordance with a code of a program stored in the ROMor the external storage device. Thus, functions (mentioned later) of the host computerand processes shown in flowcharts and sequence charts (mentioned later) are executed.

The scanning apparatusis connected to the host computervia the input/output interface. The scanning apparatusincludes an input/output interface, a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an operation unit, a reading unit, a printing unit, a NETIF, an image processor, and an external storage device. The input/output interfaceof the host computeris connected to the input/output interface. The input/output interfaceof the scanning apparatusand the input/output interfaceof the host computermay be connected via a wired network or a wireless network.

The CPUtotally controls of the scanning apparatus. The ROMis a memory storing programs etc. The RAMis a memory temporarily storing a program and image data when the CPUexecutes the program. The reading unitis a scanner and reads an image of a document to generate image data. The printing unitprints an image on a sheet based on the image data. The printing unitis not essential. The NETIFis a network interface and controls data transfer with an external apparatus via a network. The image processorperforms various image editing processes on the input image data.

The external storage deviceis, for example, an HDD or an SSD. The external storage devicestores programs, image data, etc. In the first embodiment, the scanning apparatuswill be described as an example of an image processing apparatus. The scanning apparatusis an electrophotographic digital multifunction peripheral having a plurality of functions, such as copy, print, and FAX, in addition to a document reading function. The image processing apparatus is not limited to this, and may be, for example, a multifunction peripheral using another process such as an inkjet method, or a scanner having only a document reading function. In the first embodiment, the host computerand the scanning apparatusare separately configured, but they may be configured as one apparatus.

are block diagrams illustrating software configurations of the scanning system. The following description is based on the scanning system in which the host computeris equipped with Windows 11 (registered trademark) of Microsoft (registered trademark) as the OS.is the block diagram illustrating a general configuration in a case where an expansion application(a program) is not associated with a general-purpose scan software(software) and the scanning apparatus.is a block diagram illustrating a configuration in which the expansion applicationis associated with the general-purpose scan softwareand the scanning apparatus. The software configurations illustrated inare stored in the external storage deviceof the host computer.

First, the configuration of the scanning system in which the expansion applicationis not associated with the general-purpose scan softwareand the scanning apparatuswill be described with reference to. In, a scan application, the general-purpose scan software, and scan function informationare shown as a general configuration of the software configuration of the scanning system. The scan applicationis software that captures a content (image data) obtained by the scanning apparatus. The scan applicationcorresponds to, for example, a document creation application or an image editing application. Upon receiving a scan request from the user, the scan applicationissues a scan instruction to the OS. The scan instruction includes scan setting information to instruct operations of the general-purpose scan softwareand the scanning apparatus.

The scan applicationcan display a scan setting screen provided by any of the general-purpose scan software, the OS, and the scan applicationin order to execute the scan instruction. When an advanced setting button in the scan setting screen is selected, the general-purpose scan softwareadditionally displays an advanced setting screen. The scan setting screen and the advanced setting screen will be described in detail with reference todescribed below. The advanced setting screen includes a setting item (hereinafter, referred to as a “control”) that enables the user to set a scan function in accordance with the capability information (settable information) of the general-purpose scan software, and a control indicating a set value.

The general-purpose scan softwaredetermines a scan capability based on the scan function information. The scan function informationis data indicating all scan functions that can be set by the user, set values thereof, and scan functions in which exclusive relationships between set values are described. The scan function informationis included in a configuration file of the general-purpose scan softwareand is stored in the external storage deviceas an unchangeable file. The scan function informationcan also be dynamically generated by the general-purpose scan softwareor the OS. Specifically, the general-purpose scan softwareor the OS may obtain attribute data of the scanning apparatusfrom the scanning apparatusand generate the scan function informationin accordance with attribute information in the obtained attribute data. When the scan function informationis dynamically generated, the generated scan function informationcan be edited.

The attribute data of the scanning apparatusincludes attribute information indicating functions that can be set by the user in the scanning apparatus(the capability of the scanning apparatus) and set values related to the attribute information. This information is stored in the RAM. With this configuration, the general-purpose scan softwareallows the user to set a scan function usable in each scanning apparatus in accordance with a scanning apparatus connected to the host computer. That is, even when a scanning apparatus having a different function or a scanning apparatus developed by a different manufacturer is connected, the general-purpose scan softwareallows the user to set a scan function usable in accordance with a connected scanning apparatus. Note that the manufacturer may be a vendor of scanning apparatus as described above.

In the first embodiment, the general-purpose scan softwareis a standard class driver that controls execution of a scanning process on the basis of a standard scan protocol called Mopria. The general-purpose scan softwareobtains the capability information of the connected scanning apparatusand generates the scan function informationbased on the capability information so that the user can set the scan function supported by the connected scanning apparatus. However, the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not support a file format setting function. This is because the file format setting function is a manufacturer's unique function.

The file format setting function is a function that can set a file format of image data obtained by the scanning apparatusreading a document. File formats that can be set by the file format setting function include JPEG, TIFF, PDF, XPS, and OOXML, for example. In the first embodiment, the user can set the file format when the image data obtained by the scanning apparatusreading the document is transmitted from the scanning apparatusto the host computerby using the file format setting function. In the following description, a file format of image data when the image data is transmitted from the scanning apparatusto the host computeris referred to as a “transmission format”.

Next, a configuration of the scanning system in which the expansion applicationis associated with the general-purpose scan softwareand the scanning apparatuswill be described with reference to. In, the expansion applicationis shown in addition to the general configuration of the software configuration of the scanning system shown in. Note that the configuration and process not particularly mentioned below are the same as those in. The expansion applicationis software to support the function of the general-purpose scan softwareand is not included in the OS in advance (is not packaged together).

Therefore, the user needs to operate the host computerand download the expansion applicationfrom a server to the host computervia the Internet and install it. Alternatively, the expansion applicationmay be automatically installed in response to the connection of the scanning apparatusto the host computer. Specifically, when the scanning apparatusis connected to the host computer, the OS of the host computerobtains device identification information from the scanning apparatus. Further, the OS downloads the expansion applicationcorresponding to the obtained device identification information from the server to the host computervia the Internet and installs the expansion application. That is, the general-purpose scan softwareand the expansion applicationare stored in the host computeras different files. The expansion applicationmay be installed in the host computerwhen the CPUof the host computerreads the expansion applicationstored in the storage medium.

Note that the general-purpose scan softwareand the expansion applicationmay be updated and upgraded, but the update processes are also performed at different timings. That is, the timing at which the host computerobtains the general-purpose scan softwareis different from the timing at which the host computerobtains the expansion application. Further, a trigger for the host computerto obtain the general-purpose scan softwareis also different from a trigger for the host computerto obtain the expansion application. When the expansion applicationis installed, the OS associates the expansion applicationwith the general-purpose scan softwareand the scanning apparatus.

As shown in, the expansion applicationhas a scan-setting-screen expansion unit, a scan function expansion unit, an image data editing unit, and a notification unit. The expansion applicationhas shared informationthat can be accessed in common by the units. An actual state of the shared informationis a file stored in the external storage deviceor information stored in the RAMin the host computer. The expansion applicationwrites and reads information to and from the shared informationby using an API (Application Program Interface) provided by the OS. The expansion applicationmay end the operation every time the process of each unit is finished. In this case, the OS activates the expansion applicationevery time a request to use each unit is received. Further, the expansion applicationmay cancel the process in the process of each unit. When the expansion applicationcancels the process, the job being processed is deleted by the OS.

Upon receiving a scan request from the user, the scan applicationissues a scan instruction to the OS. In the configuration in, the scan applicationcan display the scan setting screen as with the configuration in. Further, in the configuration of, when the advanced setting button on the scan setting screen is selected, an advanced setting screen provided by the expansion applicationis additionally displayed. Specifically, the advanced setting screen provided by the scan-setting-screen expansion unitof the expansion applicationis displayed. The advanced setting screen provided by the expansion applicationincludes a setting item (hereinafter, referred to as a “control”) that allows the user to set a scan function and a control indicating its set value. The scan-setting-screen expansion unitcan store the information about the advanced setting set by the user in the shared informationas the scan setting information.

The image data editing unitobtains image data from the scanning apparatusand edits the obtained image data. The image data editing unitobtains the scan setting information from the shared informationand edits the image data in accordance with the advanced setting. The expansion applicationmay obtain image data via the general-purpose scan softwareand edit the obtained image data in accordance with the advanced setting. In the configuration in, the user sometimes does not set the file format. In this case, the general-purpose scan softwaremay issue the scan instruction to the scanning apparatuswithout passing through the expansion applicationas in the configuration in.

The scan function expansion unitcan edit the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareor the OS. Thus, the scan function expansion unitcan add a function provided by the expansion application. The scan function expansion unitcan add a function (for example, a file format setting function) that is supported by the scanning apparatusbut is not supported by the general-purpose scan software, and an exclusive relationship between set values of scan functions. The OS activates the scan function expansion unitwhen the expansion applicationis first associated with the scanning apparatusand the general-purpose scan software. Further, the OS may activate the scan function expansion unitat another timing (for example, an activation timing of the OS).

The notification unitcan display a notification to the user in response to an error occurring in the scanning apparatus. For example, when a reading jam error occurs in the scanning apparatus, the general-purpose scan softwaredetects the error, and the OS causes the display unitto display a message using a notification function called a toast notification, which is a function of the OS. When the user selects the toast notification with the pointing device, the notification unitis called by the OS, and a UI (user interface) screen of the notification unitis displayed. The notification unitcan display, for example, a detailed message of the scan jam error and a jam handling method on the UI screen.

The configuration of the expansion applicationis not limited to the configuration including all of the above-described functions (units), and may include a part of the functions or may include other functions. The expansion applicationmay also be simply referred to as scan software. As described above, the expansion applicationhas at least one of the following four functions. The first is a function of displaying a setting screen (the scan-setting-screen expansion unit). The second is a function of editing the image data according to the advanced setting (the image data editing unit). The third is a function of supporting the function of the general-purpose scan software (the scan function expansion unit). The fourth is a function of displaying a screen in response to occurrence of an error in the scanning apparatus(the notification unit). The expansion application, the general-purpose scan software, and the scan applicationare activated by the CPUbeing read from the external storage device, developed to the RAM, and executed.

Next, examples of the scan setting screen and the advanced setting screen will be described with reference to.is a view illustrating the scan setting screen displayed by the scan application.is a view illustrating the advanced setting screen displayed when the expansion applicationis not included as shown in.is a view illustrating the advanced setting screen displayed when the expansion applicationis included as shown in. A unit or a module for displaying the scan setting screen is not limited to the above units. For example, the scan-setting-screen expansion unitmay be configured to only generate a display screen. In this case, the scan-setting-screen expansion unittransmits the generated display screen to the scan applicationvia the general-purpose scan software. The scan applicationdisplays the display screen obtained in this way.

First, the scan setting screen shown inwill be described. The scan setting screen inis a UI screen including controlsto. The controlincludes one or more setting items to urge the user to select a scanner (i.e., a scanning apparatus) used for reading a document. The controlis a button to start scanning. The controlis a button to cancel scanning. The controlis an advanced setting button. When the controlis selected with the pointing device, an additional advanced setting screen is displayed by the general-purpose scan softwareor the scan-setting-screen expansion unit.

Next, the advanced setting screen shown inwill be described. The advanced setting screen inis an additional advanced setting screen displayed by the general-purpose scan softwarewhen the expansion applicationis not included. Further, the advanced setting screen inis a UI screen including controlsand. The controlallows the user to set the reading position, andshows a state where an “document base” is set. The controlis a button to end the setting. When the controlis selected with the pointing device, the advanced setting screen inis closed.

Next, the advanced setting screen shown inwill be described.is an additional advanced setting screen displayed by the scan-setting-screen expansion unitwhen the expansion applicationis included. The advanced setting screen inis a UI screen in which a control, a list, an option setting, and a per-page divisionare added to the advanced setting screen in. The list, the option setting, and the per-page divisionare also controls. The controlallows the user to set a file format (a transmission format in the first embodiment).show a state where “PDF” is set.

When the controlis selected with the pointing device, the listdynamically expands the setting items of the file format. The listincludes “JPEG”, “TIFF”, “XPS”, and “OOXML” as the setting items of the file format in addition to “PDF” that is currently set. The user can switch the file format to be set by selecting a desired file format from the listwith the pointing device. The file formats displayed in the listare examples. In addition, the listmay display file formats such as “PNG” for recording image data, “DOC” for recording document data, and “PPT” for recording a presentation document. Further, the listmay display various file formats such as “XLS” for recording a spreadsheet document, and “TXT” and “CSV” for recording a text file.

The option settingallows the user to set an additional option related to each file format.shows a state where the additional options of “high compression” and “OCR” are set. In the option setting, detailed settings are possible for each file format. Since the setting in the option settingis a well-known general setting, a detailed description thereof is omitted. The additional option “PDF/A” is a setting item indicating that the format conversion is performed not to the file format of the normal PDF but to the file format compliant with PDF/A.

The additional option of “high compression” is a setting item indicating that image data is efficiently compressed so that data size becomes smaller than the normal document data by synthesizing objects while optimizing settings, such as resolution and color setting, for each object. The additional option of “OCR” is a setting item indicating that text data extracted by performing an OCR process on the image read by the scanning apparatusis superimposed on the image as invisible text data so that a character portion in the image can be searched. The additional option of “encryption” is a setting item indicating that the image data obtained by the scanning apparatusis encrypted using a password.

In the option setting, in addition to the setting items of the four additional options displayed in, for example, a setting item related to another file format such as an additional option of “electronic signature addition” can be set in the same manner. In the option setting, display or non-display of a setting item is switched for each set file format. For example, the additional option of “OCR” is displayed in the option settingwhen “PDF” is set as the file format, but is not displayed in the option settingwhen “JPEG” is set as the file format. Alternatively, all options may be displayed for any file formats in the option settingand an error notification may be performed when an option unsupported by the selected file format is selected with the pointing device. Specifically, for example, when “OCR” displayed in the option settingis selected with the pointing devicein a case where “JPEG” is set as the file format, an error notification is performed.

The per-page divisionis a control to allow the user to set an additional option of dividing the image data obtained by the scanning apparatusthat includes a plurality of pages into files to be output for respective pages.shows a state where the per-page division is disable. Note that when a file format such as JPEG that does not support the per-page division is set, the per-page divisionmay be hidden or grayed out, or an error notification may be issued when the per-page divisionis enabled. In all the embodiments described in this specification, the functions related to the setting of the option settingand the setting of the per-page divisionshall be included in the functions related to the setting of the file format.

Hereinafter, a reason why the controls are different between the advanced setting screens inwill be described. The advanced setting screen is generated by referring to the scan capability determined on the basis of the scan function information. However, since the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not support the file format setting function, the file format setting function cannot be added to the scan function information. Even if the scan function informationoriginally includes the file format setting function, the general-purpose scan softwarecannot interpret the file format setting function included in the scan function information.

Thus, the general-purpose scan softwarecannot display the controlto set the file format on the advanced setting screen. On the other hand, if the expansion applicationis included, the scan function expansion unitadds the file format setting function to the scan function information, and the scan-setting-screen expansion unitdisplays the advanced setting screen generated by referring to the scan capability. Thus, the expansion applicationcan display the controlto set the file format on the advanced setting screen. Note that the advanced setting screen inmay additionally include a control for an expanded function other than the file format setting function.

Here, a flow of an editing process to edit the scan function informationperformed by the scan function expansion unitof the expansion applicationwill be described using a flowchart shown in. Each step of the flowchart shown inis achieved by the CPUin the host computerexecuting the expansion applicationthat is read from the external storage deviceand developed onto the RAM. When the editing process of the flowchart inis started, the CPUobtains capability information from the scanning apparatuswith the scan function expansion unitin a step S. The capability information includes attribute information indicating functions that can be set in the scanning apparatusand set values associated with the attribute information. A tableinshows an example of a list of pieces of capability information obtained from the scanning apparatus. As shown in the table, the information about functions such as a reading size and a file format, and information about options that are set values settable for the respective functions can be obtained as the capability information from the scanning apparatus.

Referring back to the description of. Next, the CPUobtains a list of scan functions supported by the expansion applicationfrom the shared informationwith the scan function expansion unitin a step S. The list of the scan functions supported by the expansion applicationincludes all functions that can be processed by the expansion applicationand their set values, and is stored in the shared information. A tableinshows an example of a list of scan functions supported by the expansion application. The list of the scan functions supported by the expansion applicationmay be updated when updating the expansion application.

Referring back to the description of. Subsequently, the CPUobtains the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwarefrom the OS with the scan function expansion unitin a step S. A tableinshows an example of a list of scan functions supported by the general-purpose scan software. The general-purpose scan softwaregenerates the scan function informationbased on the tablethat is the list of the pieces of capability information obtained by the general-purpose scan softwarefrom the scanning apparatus. In addition, the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareincludes only the functions supported by the general-purpose scan softwareand their set values among the pieces of capability information obtained from the scanning apparatus.

Accordingly, the functions included in the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareare limited. For example, the table, which is the list of the pieces of capability information obtained from the scanning apparatus, includes the function of the file format (hereinafter, also referred to as the “file format setting function”). However, since the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not support the file format setting function, the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not include the file format setting function. Therefore, the scan function expansion unitadds a function or an option to the scan function information, and thus the expansion applicationcan compensate for a lack of function of the general-purpose scan software. The scan function expansion unitcan also delete unnecessary functions and options from the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan software.

Referring back to the description of. The following process in steps S, S, and Sis repeatedly performed for the functions and options of the capability information obtained from the scanning apparatusin the step S. That is, the process in the steps S, S, and Sis repeatedly performed for fourteen items from “reading size: A4H” to “file format: OOXML” included in the table. First, the CPUdetermines with the scan function expansion unitwhether the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareincludes a target function-and-option (a combination of a function and an option, for example, “reading size: A4H”) under processing in the step S.

When the CPUdetermines, with the scan function expansion unit, that the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareincludes the function-and-option under processing, the process returns to the step S. At this time, the CPUselects the next item from the functions and options of the capability information obtained from the scanning apparatuswith the scan function expansion unit, and performs the process in the step Sagain. However, if the CPUhas performed the last item of the functions and options of the capability information obtained from the scanning apparatuswith the scan function expansion unit, the process of the flowchart inends. On the other hand, if the CPUdetermines with the scan function expansion unit, that the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not include the function-and-option under processing, the process proceeds to the step S.

Specifically, for example, the “reading position: document base” shown in the tablethat is the list of the pieces of capability information of the scanning apparatusis also included in the tablethat is the list of the pieces of capability information of the general-purpose scan software. Therefore, in this case, the CPUdetermines with the scan function expansion unitthat the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwareincludes the function-and-option under processing. On the other hand, the “reading size: A4H” shown in the tableis not included in the table. Therefore, in this case, the CPUdetermines with the scan function expansion unitthat the scan function informationgenerated by the general-purpose scan softwaredoes not include the function-and-option under processing. As a result, the process proceeds to the step S.